Over the years, many improvements and refinements to the backpropagation learning algorithm have been reported. In this paper, a new adaptive penalty-based learning extension for the backpropagation learning algorithm and its variants is proposed. The new method initially puts pressure on artificial neural networks in order to get all outputs for all training patterns into the correct half of the output range, instead of mainly focusing on minimizing the difference between the target and actual output values. The upper bound of the penalty values is also controlled. The technique is easy to implement and computationally inexpensive. In this study, the new approach is applied to the backpropagation learning algorithm as well as the RPROP learning algorithm. The superiority of the new proposed method is demonstrated though many simulations. By applying the extension, the percentage of successful runs can be greatly increased and the average number of epochs to convergence can be well reduced on various problem instances. The behavior of the penalty values during training is also analyzed and their active role within the learning process is confirmed.